(pic credit: http://oolongteanew.blogspot.com/2013/02/what-is-oolong-tea.html)
Because of my general tastes for un-sweetened tea, I gravitate, when the choice is given to me, toward teas that don't need sugar to taste really good. And because of this, at one of the tea shops or herb shops ages ago, someone introduced me to Oolong, and I was in love.
It varies as much as green or black tea does in flavor, but it's generally rich, earthy, a little toasty, and often bright and fresh tasting. It's made by a process somewhere halfway between how you make green tea and how you make black tea, so it comes out halfway between. At the time that I found it for the first time, I was regularly drinking a pot of tea made with a black tea bag and a green tea bag, and oolong is something like that, but much, much better.
(pic credit: http://healthlob.com/2011/04/slim-tea/)
Oolong is the best tea for losing and maintaining lost weight. It raises your metabolism without making you jittery, it has very low caffeine (though not so low as green tea) and it's got all the antioxidants and trace nutrients that any tea has. It's good hot or cold, and it takes flavoring and scenting well--I've had oolong scented with jasmine, with peach, with vanilla, with osmanthus, and with herbs, and they were all good. It's especially good with summer-fruit sorts of flavors, or with really fragrant floral flavors.
Some of the stronger ones are just as good British-style as a decent black tea, and it mixes well with other types of teas for fancy Teavana-style blended teas.
Have you tried any oolongs? What did you think of them?
(pic credit: http://english.mingshancha.com/abouttea/about-tea.php)
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